The SCimPULSE foundation is a non-profit, public benefit organization based on research, innovation and education. The foundation connects people, institutions, schools and corporations, hosting an open network where potential ideas become feasible initiatives, to support targeted solutions until they achieve escape velocity or scale up to global impact

www.scimpulse.org

How real is the possibility of a societal collapse? Can complex, advanced civilizations really collapse?

It is common to portray human history as a relentless and inevitable trend toward greater levels of social complexity, political organization, and economic specialization, with the development of more complex and capable technologies supporting ever-growing population, all sustained by the mobilization of ever-increasing quantities of material, energy, and information.
Yet this is not inevitable. In fact, cases where this seemingly near-universal, long-term trend has been severely disrupted by a precipitous collapse |often lasting centuries| have been quite common. A brief review of some examples of collapses suggests that the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history, making it important to establish a general explanation of this process ...